Custom dress form



May 26, 1964 R. STEWART CUSTOM DRESS FORM Filed April 15, 1963 INVENTOR. L ELA RUTH STEWART United States Patent M 3,134,524 CUSTOM DRESS FORM Lela Ruth Stewart, La Jolla, Calif., assignor to Stewart- Form, Inc., San Diego, Calif., a corporation of California Filed Apr. 15, 1963, Ser. No. 273,192 2 Claims. (Cl. 223-68) The present invention relates to a dress form and more particularly to a dress form in which a foam core member is provided with an outer non-stretchable jacket which is first adjusted to the desired size and shape but has a further fine adjustment incorporated therein.

The primary object of this invention is to provide in a dress form including a foam core and a nonstretchable jacket enclosing the core, an improved adjustable means for accurately shaping the bust portion of the jacket to the exact shape of the person to whom the dress is to be fitted.

A further object of this invention is to provide an improved dress form having a foam rubber core which will adjust itself to fit within a reasonable range of dress sizes.

Finally, it is an object to provide a dress form of the aforementioned character which is simple and convenient to use and which will give generally efiicient and durable service.

With these and other objects definitely in view, this invention consists in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of elements and portions, as will be hereinafter fully described in the specification, particularly pointed out in the claims, and illustrated in the drawing which forms a material part of this disclosure, and inwhich:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation view of my improved dress form;

FIGURE 2 is a side view partly in section;

FIGURE 3 is a back elevation view partly in section and FIGURE 4 is a View in section on the line 4-4 of FIGURE 1.

My improved dress form consists essentially of a core member it formed of compressible resilient material and a non-stretchable jacket 25 enclosing the core 10. Support for the dress form is provided by an elongated rod 14 enclosed within the core and extending vertically beyond the bottom thereof in position to be engaged by any suitable fixed supporting means.

Core 10 is shaped to generally body contour and, as such, is provided with a neck portion 16, shoulder portions 18 and 20, bust portion 22 and skirt portion 24. Enclosing the core 10 is a jacket 25 formed of nonstretchable material, preferably a light weight canvas. However any material having the desired form retaining characteristics may be substituted therefor. This jacket is formed of four strips of material 26, 28, 30 and 32 extending from the shoulder forwardly and downwardly over the bust, waist and hip line of the core member and four strips of material 34, 36, 38 and 40 extending from the shoulder over the back. All of the strips except 36 and 38 are connected together by wide seams 42 which will permit slight variations to be made in the shape of the jacket. Conventional darts 44, extending from each arm hole toward the bust line and across the front of the jacket between the bust lines permit the jacket to be fashioned to the exact shape desired. It is readily apparent that, by reason of the use of wide seams 42 and darts 44, the jacket is shapable to specific body contour and exact conformance to human form is provided. A full length zipper fas- 3,134,524 Patented May 26, 1964 tening between strips 36 and 38 provides a means for removably securing jacket 25 on core 10.

Support rod 14 is provided at its upper end with an enlarged portion which may conveniently take the form of a cross bar 46 the purpose of which will be hereinafter pointed out. It is desirable to mount rod 14 permanently in core 10. To this end a longitudinal hole 48 is provided which is just slightly smaller in diameter than the rod. A slit 50 is provided in core 10 at substantially the elevation of cross bar 46. The width of this slit is substantially equal to the length of the cross bar.

The only function of the slit 50 is to permit assembly of the support rod 14 in core 10. It will be readily apparent that this assembly step may be accomplished by deforming the upper portion of core 10 at the slit 50 a sufficient amount to insert the lower end of rod 14. Core 10 is resiliently deformable to permit the rod to be threaded into bore 48. Continued pressure will force rod 14 into the position shown in FIGURE 2 after which the slit 50 is glued shut.

I have found that the foam core 10 and jacket do not conform exactly to the shape of the individual particularly in the bust line at the intermammary depression where there are abrupt changes in the body contour. This makes it difiicult to shape a garment at this particular point on the dress form. I have overcome this defect by providing an adjustable connection between the support rod and the non-stretchable jacket at the central part 51 of the bust line of the jacket. To accomplish this I provide a vertical slit 52 in the core 10 at the central part of the bust portion. This slit terminates at cross member 46 and tapers slightly out wardly as shown in FIGURE 2. A pair of eyelets 54, 54 are positioned in jacket 25 at the part 51 and spaced slightly apart horizontally. Interconnecting the cross member 46 with the jacket 25 is an inextensible tie cord or retractor which is looped over the cross member 46 to provide two parts 58 and 60 each of which is threaded thru a single eyelet 54 and the ends tied at 62 as shown in FIGURE 3. It will be readily apparent that the length of parts 58 and 60 may be varied at will by changing the position of knot 62. This permits, by length adjustment, the variation of the intermammary depression and by raising and lowering the tie cord the form and jacket can be further varied to simulate the individual. The core body 10 may be made from any form retaining, compressible and resilient material such as the well known resilient foam materials, either natural or synthetic, having the desired form retaining characteristics. It is preferred to mold the core generally to the shape of the human body but since the foam material is readily yieldable the exact size and shape of the core are not critical. It is apparent that the core will adjust itself to fit a reasonable range of sizes for example three sizes smaller than the body.

The term dress form as used in the specification and claims includes forms used in mens as well as womens tailoring.

It is understood that minor variation from the form of the invention disclosed herein may be made without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and that the specification and drawings are to be considered as merely illustrative rather than limiting.

I claim:

1. A dress form comprising:

an easily compressible, solid, resilient core having a bust portion and a depending skirt portion shaped generally to female body contour;

a non-stretchable jacket shaped generally to female body contour and shapable to specific body contour enclosing said core;

support means centrally of said core extending from 2. A dress form as claimed in claim 1 in which said a below said skirt portion to substantially said bust slit extends vertically and diverges fromthe center of the portion; 7 core outwardly thereof.

said core having a slit extending between the upper p portion of said support and the central part of said 5 Refeences Clted the file of thls P jacket overlying said bust portion; and UNITED STATES PATENTS an adjustable retractor insaid slit secured'to said sup- 2,657,343 Wiesner 3, 1953 sport means and said jacket and forming an inter- 2 375 Schilling Feb 16, 1954 mammary depression therein. 2,985,345 Hiscock May 23, 1961 

1. A DRESS FORM COMPRISING: AN EASILY COMPRESSIBLE, SOLID, RESILIENT CORE HAVING A BUST PORTION AND A DEPENDING SKIRT PORTION SHAPED GENERALLY TO FEMALE BODY CONTOUR; A NON-STRETCHABLE JACKET SHAPED GENERALLY TO FEMALE BODY CONTOUR AND SHAPABLE TO SPECIFIC BODY CONTOUR ENCLOSING SAID CORE; SUPPORT MEANS CENTRALLY OF SAID CORE EXTENDING FROM BELOW SAID SKIRT PORTION TO SUBSTANTIALLY SAID BUST PORTION; SAID CORE HAVING A SLIT EXTENDING BETWEEN THE UPPER PORTION OF SAID SUPPORT AND THE CENTRAL PART OF SAID JACKET OVERLYING SAID BUST PORTION; AND AN ADJUSTABLE RETRACTOR IN SAID SLIT SECURED TO SAID SUPPORT MEANS AND SAID JACKET AND FORMING AN INTERMAMMARY DEPRESSION THEREIN. 